Beck's Plc Research

Identify and discuss aspects of the operations activities which Beck’s Plc. needs to review and/or will need to adapt to meet the on-going demands of its customers

The operations activities in business include performance objectives, which include flexibility, cost, quality, speed of production, and dependability. Evaluating all this factors, it turns out to be possible to observe the business construction and discuss operations activities, which attract the customers and increase the products’ demand.

Before to start, it is important to note what performance objectives are. It is evident that performance objectives consist of two main parts. The first one is the ‘what’ of the job. The second is the ‘how’ of the job. The main difference about these two factors is that ‘what’ means quantity, quality, and time elements. The ‘how’ of the job means behaviours. It is common to think that performance objectives are particular goals or objects that are additional to everyday accountabilities. They are equal to the leadership core values. Moreover, the performance objectives will be contributed to the business success and will be accomplished within the evaluating period.

The main duty of all performance objectives is to further the development of manufacturing and to expand the business. The main targets, which should include common performance objectives, must be weighted according to their relative importance to the job. In addition, they should be dictated by the current strategy or department and expressed in percentages, quantities, or dollars.

So far as is known, quality is one of the performance objectives. Quality means producing goods or services which satisfy the customer’s needs. Speed is the other objective. The speed of productivity identifies how quickly the goods are produced. It minimizes the time between the order and the availability of the service or product. Dependability is the third performance objective. It identifies the timely supplying goods or services to the clients as they are promised to be delivered. Flexibility is a clear result of responding to the developing environment. It means that the organization changes its own strategy to do business and changes its goods and services, as well. Low prices are the most attractive element for customers. Producing goods by low costs will create the other operation’s objective – the cost. If the company is able to compete with the prices, it would attract many customers.

All the performance objectives are bounded with each other. For example, quality can reduce the cost and increase dependability. High quality of goods and services means that the products include mistakes. It means that the company will need less time to correct them. If the quality of a product is high, it would satisfy the clients more than goods and services with the low quality. High quality of the produced products may lead to stable and efficient processes.

Analysing the performance objectives, it turned out to be visible that flexibility is supported by speed of production. As it is known, speed means the time of product producing from the client’s requesting moment till the moment when a client receives this good. As the matter of fact, people prefer faster delivery or service. Speed also reduces inventories and risks. The faster is speed, the easier products and services are accepted. So, flexibility is strengthening. There is abundant evidence that dependability reduces the cost. It depends on the fact that ineffective use of the time will lead to the extra cost. Dependability does not welcome any extra surprises to company’s internal clients. It is considered that the goods or services should be delivered exactly as it was planned. This allows the other operations to run efficiently and eliminates wasteful disruption at the same time. Other than, flexibility maintains dependability and supports cost. Flexibility is a performance objective that allows manufacturing to change the circumstances as soon as possible without disruption of production. It can be changed over between the tasks and does not waste time or capacities. If the unplanned circumstances can disrupt the operation’s plans, it allows keeping the operation on the schedule.

It goes without saying that the cost is affected by other performance objectives. Moreover, speed can also decrease the level of in-process inventory between the operations. Moreover, it can reduce administrative overheads, as well.

Each business requires some improvements, time after time. As the matter of fact, the best improvements for Beck’s Plc. will be creating of a call centre, developing the transportation branch, and increasing the manufacturing processes. According to the managers, the goods production was improved recently. Changing the lines or system of manufacturing is too costly. Moreover, this process requires preparation and time. It is evident that Beck’s Plc. is not ready for such changes. Therefore, the best decision about how to increase the commodity circulation and currency is to create the call centres.

To start a call centre is a great opportunity to make additional profit, increase the goods supply, and raise the level of business. First of all, call centres make it possible for customers to request the goods and services on any time available for them. Call –centres help to upgrade the supply chain network. In addition, web-site creation can help Beck’s Plc. to save money and time for communication with clients. All needed information can be available on the site while the call centre does not give detailed information, but just take orders and requests. It seems to be easy to modern the structure of supply. Nowadays, internet services develop so quickly, and it is a reason for any business not to lag behind with them in order to be available for customers in all possible ways. The call centre and web-site creation is a good idea for business upgrading.

4. Discuss the management of materials at Beck’s Plc.

Materials planning is a part of logistics, which includes tracking the movement of products. Inventory management, quality control, and spare parts are the three major elements commonly associated with materials management. They are:. Material management is a prevailing part in distribution and manufacturing spheres. Proper goods tracking is among basic goals and functions of management of materials. Manufactured materials are of great value for the company. That is why each item represents a financial and resource value for the company. Materials’ management helps to determine the value of items and organize their proper usage. Some of the employees even hire workers to track such materials.

Spare parts are the main element of materials management in the business. Detailing the business process, it is possible to estimate the order for spare parts. In a word, it is possible to determine the best quantity to order, as well as if parts are located in their correct place. If the process of materials management is poor, it can lead the business to downtime and lose of production. It depends on the breakdown of machines with no parts able to repair them.

Speaking about Beck’s Plc., last few years the company was operating in relatively stable environment. Managing its materials, Beck’s Plc. isolates the plants from changing market demand. The existence of long-term contracts for third parties, large scale permitted long production runs. It is important to underline that the Beck’s Plc. warehouse facilities cover 40% of production and hold material inputs and finished goods. Recent time, the manufacturing of Beck’s Plc. had adapted its operations. The company reduces the third party contracts, large scale, etc. Beck’s Plc. extended the use of own label products and increased product ranges, which cover a wide variety of health care products. With the increase of clients and orders, the communication between the sales and Production Operation Depth turned out to be frequent, complex, and detailed. It is also important that the company’s line extensions increased because they extended the market with the aim to meet the customers’ requirements. The effect of the increased number of line extensions in many cases increased the value- added products. It refers to a range of health care products and pharmaceutical.

The Beck’s manufacturing management proves that pharmaceutical and health care products are being pushed in the same manufacturing direction as the other goods, such as electronic tools. In short, this means increased product variety. That is why the product manufacturing plan is required to exhibit a higher level of flexibility that earlier. During last 20 years, the company has increased its manufacturing to three production lines. Recently, there appeared two new lines of manufacture. Nowadays, Beck’s Plc. keeps developing. It is crucial for the company to improve its manufacture. For example, to change production from one product to another, old line takes from two and a half to six hours. The new line takes for this task from one to three hours. The materials management of the company is seen also when some Beck’s orders often come at short notice. Therefore, they have some difficulty responding to the clients’ lead-time.

To sum up, the materials management is the control and planning of the functions, which supports the complete cycle of materials and the connected flow of information. These functions are also called the materials planning. They include quality and inventory control, packaging, storage, identification, need determination, standardization, cataloguing, scheduling, and disposal. These functions are dominant for a business organization.